E-mail. Advatages and Disadvateages of E-mail.

E-mail

The abbreviated form of an Electronic mail is ‘E-mail’. E-mail is a system of creating, sending and storing textual data in digital form over a network. Earlier, the e-mail system was based on Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mechanism, a protocol used in sending the e-mails from one server to another. Today’s e-mail technology uses the store-and-forward model. In this model, the users sends and receives information on their own computer terminal. However, the computer is used only for connecting to the e-mail architecture. The creation, transmission and storage of e-mail takes place, only when the connection with this e-mail architecture is established.

E-mail is one of the many technological developments that has influenced our lives. It has changed the medium of communication. So, it becomes necessary for us to check out the benefits and harmful effects of this popular tool used on the Internet.

Advantages of Email
The benefits of e-mail are huge in number.

• Easy to use: E-mail frees us from the tedious task of managing data of daily use. It helps us to manage our contacts, send mails quickly, maintain our mail history, store the required information, etc.
• Speed: The e-mail is delivered instantly, anywhere across the globe. No other service matches the e-mail in terms of speed.
• Easy to prioritize: Since the mails have subject lines, it is easy to prioritize them and ignore unwanted mails.
• Reliable and secure: Constant efforts are being taken to improve the security in electronic mails. Thus making it one of the secured ways of communication.
• Informal and conversational: The language used in e-mails is generally simple and thus makes the communication informal. Sending and receiving e-mails takes less time, so it can be used as a tool for interaction.
• Easier for reference: When one needs to reply to a mail, there is a provision in the mailing system to attach the previous mails as references. This refreshes the recipient’s knowledge, on what he is reading.
• Automated e-mails: It is possible to send automated e-mails using special programs like the autoresponders. The autoresponders reply back to the sender with generalized pre-written text messages.
• Environment friendly: Postal mails use paper as a medium to send letters. Electronic mail thus, saves a lot of trees from being axed. It also saves fuel needed in transportation.
• Use of graphics: Colorful greeting cards and interesting pictures can be sent through e-mails. This adds value to the e-mail service.
• Advertising tool: Many individuals and companies are using e-mails to advertise their products, services, etc.

Disadvantages of Email
The e-mails, though beneficial in our day-to-day life, has got its own drawbacks that are off late coming to the fore.

• Viruses: These are computer programs having the potential to harm a computer system. These programs copy themselves and further infect the computer. The recipient needs to scan the mails, as viruses are transmitted through them and have the potential to harm computer systems.
• Spam: E-mails when used to send unsolicited messages and unwanted advertisements create nuisance and is termed as Spam. Checking and deleting these unwanted mails can unnecessarily consume a lot of time, and it has become necessary to block or filter the unwanted e-mails by means of spam filters. Spamming includes, sending hoax e-mails. E-mail spoofing is another common practice, used for spamming. Spoofing involves deceiving the recipient by altering the e-mail headers or the addresses from which the mail is sent.
• Hacking: The act of breaking into computer security is termed as hacking. After the e-mail is sent and before it is received by the desired recipient, it “bounces” between servers located in different parts of the world. Hence, the e-mail can be hacked by a professional hacker.
• Misinterpretation: One has to be careful while posting any kind of content through an e-mail. If typed in a hurry, the matter could be misinterpreted.
• Lengthy mails: If the mail is too long and not properly presented the reader may lose interest in reading it.
• Not suitable for business: Since the content posted via e-mails is considered informal, there is a chance of business documents going unnoticed. Thus, urgent transactions and especially those requiring signatures are not managed through e-mails.
• Crowded inbox: Over a period of time, the e-mail inbox may get crowded with mails. It becomes difficult for the user to manage such a huge chunk of mails.
• Need to check the inbox regularly: In order to be updated, one has to check his e-mail account regularly.

 

 

                   Parts of an email message

An email message consists of the following general components:

Headers

The message headers contain information concerning the sender and recipients. The exact content of mail headers can vary depending on the email system that generated the message. Generally, headers contain the following information:

• Subject. This is what appears in most email systems that list email messages individually. A subject line could be something like “2005 company mission statement” or, if your spam filtering application is too lenient, “Lose weight fast!!! Ask me how.”
• Sender (From). This is the senders Internet email address. It is usually presumed to be the same as the Reply-to address, unless a different one is provided.
• Date and time received (On). The time the message was received.
• Reply-to. This is the Internet email address that will become the recipient of your reply if you click the Reply button.
• Recipient (To:). First/last name of email recipient, as configured by the sender.
• Recipient email address. The Internet mail address of the recipient, or where the message was actually sent.

Body

The body of a message contains text that is the actual content, such as “Employees who are eligible for the new health care program should contact their supervisors by next Friday if they want to switch.”  The message body also may include signatures or automatically generated text that is inserted by the sender’s email system.

AttachmentsThese are optional and include any separate files that may be part of the mess